Holder for a stack of sheets



March 14, 1950 A. POSTELL 2,500,468

HOLDER FOR A STACK OF SHEETS Filed Oct. 1, 1946 i fy? J ,yet readily Patented Mar. 14, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 9 Claims.

My invention relates to holders for securely retaining a plurality of sheets in staokedrelation, .but operable to release any or all of the sheets. The invention will hereinafter be specifically described, by way of illustration, as applied to holding a stack of sheets suitable for memoranda, but the invention is obviously applicable to a wide variety of other uses.

In many cases, as for instance, in using a pad of sheets for memoranda, it is necessary to have the sheets held securely across at least one edge and such pads are commonly bound up in book form, but this necessitates tearing loose the used sheet, with the possibility of tearing the sheet. Further, the top sheet, unless the pad is of heavy paper, is likely to ourlor become wrinkled, so that it is an advantage to provide means to hold the sheets flat, but to the best of my knowledge, no device capable of securely holding a pad of loose leaves so that they .are maintained in fiat-position i,

in a readily releasable manner, has been provided prior to my invention.

It is an object of the invention to provide .a holder for a stack of sheets, comprising means holding the sheets flat and having a member operable to enable the stack of sheets to be readily inserted.

A further object of the invention, is to provide a holder for a stash of paper sheets, having abed, means holding the stack of sheets on :the bed by clamping both the topof the stack and the edges thereof, and a member by which the holding means may be released.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a releasable hold on the sheets of the stack of simple and inexpensive"construction.

Another object of the invention is to provide holding means for a stack of sheets intended to be used for memoranda, the holding means being arranged to facilitate the insertion of a stack of sheets into the holder. I

till further objects and features of the invention will hereinafter appear from the following specification, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate an embodiment of the invention at present deemed preferable by me, and in which:

Fig. l is aperspeotive viewof the holder;

,Fig. 2 is a central longitudinalsection;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of "the underside of "the holder, the holder having been'turned lower end over top; and

Fig. 4 is a section on theline t-d of Fig. 2.

In the drawings, the numeral H3 indicates a frame, providing a raised bed .12, preferably inclined upwardly to afford greaterease in writing on the stack I4 supported on the bed. Thestack It is formed by a number of loose sheets of the same size.

memo pad holder, providing a secure, I

A clamping member I6, having a clamping edge ltd, is pivotally mounted along its rear edge E! 6b by means of lugs l8 standing downwardly from the edge 55b and through openings .20 formed in the bed and engaging a pin 22 extending across under bed i2. It will be evident, however, that the clamping member may be otherwise mounted for pivotal movement about its rear edge.

ranged to extend between the sloping front and back walls of the member H3 and are extended downwardly through slots 23a in the bed to form arms 24 under the tension of helical springs 25, normally acting .to hold the clamping edge 16a, against the upper surface of the pad, as will later pear.

.A pair of side clamps engaging against the top surface of the pad are indicated at 28and 29. The clamps 28, 29 are in the form of plates bent over to lie on the surface of the stack and to extend as indicated at 28a and 29a through slots v3t, 3|

.in the bed. Ifhe plates 28a, 29a are ,pivotally connected by loosely fitted headed pins 28b, 29b to hell cranks 32, 33 mounted on pins 34, 35 projecting from the inside of the side of the frame, the point of pivotal connection being somewhat beyond the center line of the clamps so that the ends of the clamps away from clamping member In lift ahead of the other ends. Connecting bars 35, 3] are pivoted to the bell cranks and ,to the arms 25, the helical springs 25 having one end connected to the bars 36, 3'5 and their other ends connected to studs 38, 39, projecting from the inside of the back of the frame it.

.By rotating clamping member i t about its rear edge in the .direction of the arrowshown in Fig. :2, the front clamping edge we is lifted clear of the stack and arms 26 are swung forward against the effort of springs 2.5, resulting in the rocking .of the bell cranksflii and Stand raising the clamping surfacesof thesideolamps 2,8 and 29 from the bed.

In the lifted position of the clampin means a fresh stack of loose sheets may be readily in- :serted into position .by sliding it under the raised forward edges of the side clamps 52.8 and 29,1.the

side plates .of whichaid in guiding the stack of sheets under the raised clamping edge or the top clamping member l6. Preferably the clamping members 28, 29, are arranged to move the same amount as the top clamping member.

When the top clamping member I6 is released, the side clamping members and the clamping edge lBa of the top member are brought against the top sheet of the stack with sufficient force to retain the stack securely in position, but will permit the top sheet to be readily withdrawn from the stack without the necessity of releasing the clamps. A tongue 40 is struck out of the bed and extends forwardly and upwardly therefrom, as shown in Fig. 1, under the member Hi to prevent the stack of sheets from being inserted to an unnecessary amount below the member l6 and also to stagger the sheets of the stack so that a the upper sheets project further than the lower sheets and are easily grasped when it is desired to pull Ofi the top sheet of the stack.

While I have described and illustrated a pre ferred form of the invention, it is pointed out that various changes and modifications in the structure described may be carried out by those skilled in the art without departing from th spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. A holder for a stack of loose sheets comprising: a bed, a first sheet clamping means for frictionally holding corresponding ends of sheets in stacked relation On said bed. and second sheet clamping means spaced from the first and at relatively right angles to the first sheet clamping means and means connecting said first and second sheet clamping means below said bed, openable by the first clamping means to raise all clamping means simultaneously so as to permit insertion from a free margin of a complete stack of sheets into position for engagement with said first and second clamping means.

2. A holder for a stack of sheets, including: a bed for supporting a stack of sheets; a first releasable holding means; further releasable holding means separate from the first and an operative connection below the bed between said first and said second holding means effective to move them together substantially the same amount; means operative to normally maintain said holding means in engagement with a stack of sheets mounted on said bed; and a part normally engageable with a stack when mounted on said bed operable to move said connection so as to simultaneously raise both of said holding means.

3. A holder for a stack of sheets, including: a bed for supporting a stack of sheets; a first releasable clamping element across one end thereof and pivotally mounted thereon; further releasable clamping means spaced from the first clamping means and mounted for movement in a direction transverse to that of said first means; an operative connection below said bed between said first and said second clamping means to cause them to operate together; and resilient means acting to normally urge said clamping means toward said bed.

4. A holder for a stack of sheets, as set forth in claim 3, and in which said first releasable clamping element is pivotally mounted on the bed and provided with an upstanding portion engageable by the user to rock said clamping means about its pivotal mounting to release the clamping element and said clamping means from the urge of said resilient means.

5. A holder for a stack of sheets as set forth in claim 3, and in which said further releasable clamping means are formed as flanged plates, mounted one at each side of the bed, with their flanges projecting inwardly from opposite sides of the bed.

6. A holder for a stack of sheets including: a frame member providing a bed for supporting a stack of sheets; a releasable stack holding element pivotally mounted on said frame to extend across one end of said frame member, members pivotally mounted on each side of the frame; stack side holding means operatively connected to each pivoted member and formed to extend inwardly from opposite sides of the frame; an operative connection between the first releasable stack holding member and said pivoted members; and resilient means connected to the frame and pivoted members and efiective to urge all said holding means towards said bed.

7. A holder for a stack of sheets, including: a frame, affording a support for a stack of sheets; stack holding means across one end of the frame, other stack holding means along the opposite sides of the frame and interconnecting means between said holding means operated by the manual operation of one of said stack holding means to raise it away from said sheet support, to move the other holding means away from the sheet support.

8. A holder for a stack of sheets as set forth in claim 6 and in which said stack side holding members are pivoted to one side of their centers to the parts pivotally mounted on each side of the frame so that the end of said stack side holding elements away from the stack end holding element is raised to a greater extent than the ends toward said stack end holding element to facilitate the insertion of a stack of sheets into I position on said bed.

9. A holder for a pad of loose sheets including: a base member providing a raised bed for supporting a pad; a releasable pad holding element movably mounted on said frame to extend into engagement with the surface of the pad across one end thereof; pad holding members movably mounted on said frame to extend into engagement with the surface of the pad at the sides thereof; operative means extending below said bed between the member holding the end of a pad and the members holding the sides of the pad whereby movement of said holding means extending across the top of a pad is effective to release the holding means engaging the surface of a pad along the sides; resilient means acting normally to hold all said holding means in engagement with a pad; and an abutment sloped upwardly and forwardly from said bed to limit the movement of one end of a pad of sheets into position to be engaged by the end holding means and to efiect staggering of the opposite ends of the sheets of a pad.

ARCHIE POSTELL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 161,982 Peabody Apr. 13, 1875 572,739 Benedict Dec. 8, 1896 2 237,532 Posnack Apr. 8, 1941 2,328,471 Leffel Aug. 31, 1943 

